


a petal on the stream, a feather in the air

by daisylincs



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dammit Canon They Deserved Better, Alternate Universe - Make It Gay, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Love, Quakerider Writer's Guild Flowers Challenge, Tenderness, flower themes, yes I just shamelessly invented those two tags why'd you ask? ;)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:55:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29378133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisylincs/pseuds/daisylincs
Summary: Skye meant well, Kara was sure of it - but like so often when SHIELD meant well, they ended up doing exactly the wrong thing.Really, they should just stay out of her and her girlfriend's lives, and let them enjoy their delicate, blossoming happiness together.(Karaina + baby's breath, for theQWG Flowers Challenge 2021.)
Relationships: Kara Lynn Palamas/Raina (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 8





	a petal on the stream, a feather in the air

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheQueenInTheNorth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenInTheNorth/gifts).



> I knew I was in for a new and interesting experience when I asked you to prompt me a ship for the QWG Flowers Challenge, Lou, but I didn't expect that I would find it this _fun!!_ There's something just so delightfully freeing in Kara and Raina's characters, and their chemistry is the best to write, ahhhhh 😍 I really enjoyed this SO much; thank you thank you THANK YOU for introducing me to the idea of this wonderful ship!! Love youuuuu xD 💙

Kara had never been any good at relationships. 

(At least, she didn't think she had. She couldn't be sure, of course, not since Whitehall had taken her out and poured himself in, leaving her with a pile of memories as fluttering and unreliable as dandelions on the breeze. 

She thought she had always been focused on the mission, though. It seemed like it could be true.) 

With Raina, though, it was different. _Everything_ was different. 

With Raina, Kara wanted to _try._

So when she walked into their little flat in the East Side, she knew instantly that something was wrong. 

Raina was standing beside their kitchen table, bent over a vase of flowers - a normal enough sight in and of itself. 

Except that _Raina's hood was up._

Raina never wore her hood anymore - not around the house, not around Kara, just like Kara never activated her nanomask anymore. 

So then _why…_

"It's me," she said, part in greeting and part in quiet warning so that Raina wouldn't startle, coming up behind her girlfriend and wrapping her arms around her waist. She dropped her head onto Raina's shoulder, tightening her arms around her waist and aiming to kiss her a proper hello on the soft spot in the hollow of her throat - but Raina was stiff in her arms. 

Instead of pulling away, instead of giving into fear and insecurity, or worse, _anger,_ Kara started to sway gently from side to side like she was dancing to some silent song. Instead of drawing away, she tightened her embrace and held Raina close. 

"Want to tell me about it?" she asked, so softly that Raina could pretend she hadn't heard and not answer, if she wanted. 

Raina started to shake her head, but then she made a tiny, quiet little sighing sound, relaxing fractionally into Kara's hold for the first time that night. 

"It's _dear_ Skye," she said, nodding at the vase of blue flowers on the table. 

Though her girlfriend couldn't see her face from this position, Kara arched her eyebrows. "What, is that supposed to be a _congrats, you passed probation, you're not on SHIELD's hit list anymore_ present?" 

Raina snorted delicately, and the sound set a burst of hope blooming in Kara's heart. She wasn't so far away that Kara couldn't reach her, then. _Good._

"Well, it's stupid, and unbearably sappy," Kara said, "but it's _Skye,_ what were you expecting? Considering what we could have gotten, this is _not_ so bad." 

"It's not," Raina agreed, but something about the way she said it was off. Kara couldn't explain how she knew - she just _did,_ the same way Raina knew by one slight shift in Kara's expression that she couldn't take her coffee with creamer anymore, because it reminded her of making the stuff for Whitehall. 

"It's just that these flowers," Raina continued, and now Kara was _sure_ there was something very off, "are baby's breath." 

She turned around in Kara's arms, fixing her with a golden gaze so intense it was almost a glare. "Do you know what baby's breath symbolises, Kara?" 

Kara tried to keep her voice light. "I've only gotten to chapter two of your book so far, I'm afraid." 

Raina didn't even give her so much as an eye-roll, which was another sign that something was _definitely_ wrong. Her voice was bitter as she replied, "Baby's breath represents purity of heart, and… and _innocence."_ She slammed her hands down on either side of the vase, and though Kara was a good enough spy ( _used_ to be a good enough spy) that she didn't startle at the sound, her heart still gave a quick skip. 

"When was the last time I was _innocent?"_ Raina demanded, her voice a vicious snarl as she glared savagely at the little blue flowers in their pretty vase. "When was the last time I've been pure of… anything?" 

_"Love,"_ Kara protested, using the endearment that Raina herself had taught her. "You know I've never cared about that!" 

Raina tugged her hood down sharply, steeping out of Kara's arms in one angry, embittered movement. "Maybe you _should."_

Her thorns, Kara noticed immediately, were bristling up away from her head, and though she was trying hard to hide it, there was a gleam of tears in her eyes. 

_Oh._ So that was what this was about. 

Kara understood it, of _course_ she did - triggers didn't have to be anything big or dramatic, not when you had seen as much darkness as the two of them had. And flowers had always been special to Raina, anyway. 

But much as she understood where her girlfriend was coming from, Kara also knew that she needed to pull Raina back in from the dark press of insecurity and doubts, the way Raina always did for her. 

_"Love,"_ she said again, firmer this time, making it indisputable. "You _know_ we don't care about any of that, we never have." 

"We've seen each other through all our thorns and imperfections, and we're both still here, aren't we?" she continued, still in that gentle but firm tone. "It's our _thing._ And, okay, so maybe it means we're not the most innocent, or pure, but honestly…" 

She took a step forward, wrapping her arms around Raina's waist again, and feeling her lips curl up in a relieved smile when her girlfriend let her. "Honestly, we're _much_ more interesting than that."

Then she kissed her, right there in the middle of their tiny, crappy little lounge, the orangey glow of a streetlight outside the window casting a gentle glow on their intertwined figures - and, after a long moment, Raina gave a shaky sigh and kissed her back. 

"You know I love you, right?" she murmured against Kara's lips, and her voice was still a little unsteady, but that indefinable quality behind it - the special, unique note that made her _Raina_ \- was back. 

"I know," Kara whispered back, and she could _feel_ herself smiling against Raina's lips. "And I love you, too." 

And, yes, Kara had never been good at relationships. 

But here, now, with Raina in her arms… she thought that maybe _good_ was overrated. Everyone else's definition of it, anyway - because what she and Raina had was _so_ much better than all of that. 


End file.
